'People don't care': Only one person stopped to comfort a dying woman after she was struck by multiple cars

Only one woman stopped to comfort Wong Shuk Yee after she was struck by multiple cars

Calgary was stunned when 56-year-old Wong Shuk Yee was struck by a car in the northwest Calgary suburbs on Wednesday. The driver drove off, the following two cars swerved around her body and continued on, and then Ms. Wong was hit by a second car that dragged her a short ways and then also continued on. Ms. Yee died at the scene, comforted only by Tonja Beach, a mother of four who lived nearby. No other cars pulled over, Ms. Beach said. No one else came to help. The driver of the first car eventually pulled over and called police. He has been charged with hit and run causing death, while Calgary police are still seeking the other motorists. ThePost’s Jen Gerson spoke with Ms. Beach on Friday:

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A. I was sitting at my kitchen table having coffee and my kitchen window faces where it happened. I was sitting there and I just heard: ‘thump thump thump.’ I just knew somebody had been hit by a car and I just grabbed the phone on the way out the door and called 911 and there was a gentleman hollering ‘stop’ and trying to stop traffic and I just ran to her.

Q. And she was in pretty rough shape by that point?

A. Oh yeah. She was still awake still so I just held her hand and talked to her. But I knew when I saw her injuries that she wasn’t going to make it — because her injuries, they were horrible.

Q. Was it snowing outside? Was it dark? Do you have any idea how someone could have missed seeing her?

A. It was dark, but it wasn’t snowing. People went up and drove around us as I was sitting there and it was bad. I live right by a daycare and you think that everyone taking their kids to daycare, that any one of them would have stopped. I can understand maybe they didn’t want their kids to see that. But even on the other side of the street, nobody stopped. Nobody from the bus loop across the street ran to help her. There was a bus driver and even she stayed across the street and didn’t come to help, but I believe she was on the phone with 911.

Q. Why do you think nobody stopped to help?

A. Too busy, late for work, other agendas. I don’t know. I don’t know. I was just talking to my mom about that today because I don’t know how people can be so callous. There was one gentleman that did come back at about quarter to 9 p.m. on Wednesday night and he was visibly shaken. He said to me that he seen me look up at him as he was driving and he didn’t know what had happened. And then when he heard on the radio, he was shaken and it really bothered him that he didn’t stop. He was shaken up and he apologized. He said he was sorry he didn’t stop and he wished he would have.

Q. I was talking to some psychologists and they said there’s a phenomenon known as bystander syndrome, where if somebody sees something bad happening to a human being in a crowd, they’re actually less likely to call for help because they assume someone else is taking care of it. Do you think that could have happened?

A. I don’t know. I’m still in shock. If I came across something like that I would still get out and do anything I could do, get a blanket, anything. People just don’t care anymore. They’re too busy in their own lives to worry about anybody else. They just don’t want to get involved. The sad thing is that one day if something happens to one of those people the same thing is going to happen. People are just going to walk by.

Q. What you saw was obviously pretty traumatic. Are you all right?

A. I’m trying to handle it OK, but it’s hard because I walk out my door and it’s right there. So it’s pretty clear in my mind still and I can’t get the picture out of my mind of how she was. I have trouble sleeping. The niece [of Ms. Wong] reached out to the media to contact me and the media left a note on my door so I contacted them. And the niece said they were very grateful that I was there for her. It made it a lot easier knowing that.

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